The wood seems to be decent quality and the cast iron is heavy. Overall, the benches are very cute and will work and will probably stand the test of time, but they could be so much better...

Some of the wood slats were damaged (either warped or had significant chunks missing on the edges that were stained over without sanding out the rough spots first.

Some of the screw holes were already stripped out. Screws needed lock-tite - they loosen quickly.

Apparently the workers that mass produce these have different standards. I ordered 4 benches and the screw kits that came with them had differing number of parts in them (some had little screw caps, some had extra bolts).

They come with 2 steel brackets to attach to the bottoms of the seat slats. However, there are no holes pre-drilled for them and the brackets are not molded to fit so even if there were holes (or I had drilled them), the brackets still would not have fit properly without some work involved. I threw them away.

It could be such a great product, but it's obvious they are sacrificing quality for quantity production, which is a shame.

Great size. Very easy to assemble. My kids love playing with it. So cute. Holds 4 horses.

Feels like good quality but it's not which is surprising because we are so impressed with the horses. My children are not known for breaking toys. A few hours after assembling, the lifting part of the roof broke off the very short tiny wooden hinge pins (not even metal), and it wasn't the pin that broke, it was the "wooden" part of the roof surrounding the hinge pins.

A day later, the stable doors (which in concept are cool as there is elastic allowing greater opening ability), have broken - meaning the "wood" splintered and broke off so even though the elastic remains, the doors no longer sit as they should.

The potential is there for a great product and the price would be great if it was durable, but it's not. Very disappointing.

We purchased these blocks to replace ones that were very worn out in our church's preschool department. These are the "real" blocks. Very sturdy, very easy to assemble. The cardboard is quite thick. In order to replace all the blocks we had to toss, we ordered from four different companies to get different sizes, shapes, etc. These were by far the best quality (thickest cardboard) and ordering from Joe's was by far the least expensive way to get the quantity of large blocks we needed. Shipping was very fast and customer service was excellent. A bit of advice for anyone ordering cardboard blocks - after you assemble them, wrap them in contact paper to make them last longer. It helps the block hold it's shape (because children will jump on them) and it also makes it much easier to wipe them clean as well as prevents children from gnawing on the corners and peeling the paper.